The present invention concerns a method for processing value documents and an apparatus for carrying out said method.
Value documents are understood here to be sheet-shaped objects that represent for example a monetary value or an authorization and hence should not be manufacturable arbitrarily by unauthorized persons. They hence have features that are not simple to manufacture, in particular to copy, whose presence is an indication of authenticity, i.e. manufacture by an authorized body. Important examples of such value documents are coupons, vouchers, checks and in particular bank notes.
Value documents must frequently be checked for whether they are to be regarded as authentic and/or what state they are in. The state of bank notes can be given for example by association with classes such as “fit for circulation” and/or “unfit for circulation” and/or “damaged” or “damaged” in connection with the kind of damage.
For checking large amounts of value documents, value-document processing apparatuses are often used. Such apparatuses, in particular bank-note processing apparatuses, classify value documents, in particular bank notes, with regard to value-document type, in the case of bank notes with regard to currency and/or value, and/or authenticity and/or orientation and/or in particular state. The orientation of a value document, assuming a rectangular value document, will hereinafter be understood to be one of the four possible positions that can be obtained by rotating the value document around its longitudinal and transverse axes by 180° in each case. In dependence on the classification, the value documents can then for example be sorted and, where applicable, deposited in corresponding output regions. This will be explained by the example of value documents in the form of bank notes.
Classification is effected on the basis of different physical properties of the individual, i.e. respectively processed, bank note. Examples of such physical properties are optical properties, for example color properties, magnetic properties or ultrasonic properties.
Upon capture of the different physical properties of the individual, i.e. respectively yet to be processed or already processed, bank note, measuring data which are employed for the classification are generated by means of sensors upon the processing of bank notes in bank-note processing apparatuses. The measuring data of a respective sensor describe the physical property or properties captured by the respective sensor. Measuring data will hereinafter be understood in general to be in particular raw data formed by a sensor, which are unprocessed apart from some processing operations in the sensor and/or corrections, for example also with regard to calibration and/or removal of noise components or background components.
The measuring data delivered by the sensors are evaluated in an attached evaluation device, which can also be configured at least partly for controlling the value-document processing apparatus or as a control and evaluation device. Upon said evaluation, bank-note features characterizing bank-note type, authenticity and quality of the bank note are determined by suitable evaluation methods. In dependence on the determined bank-note features there is then computed by the evaluation device a classification result, which subsequently determines which output pocket of the bank-note processing apparatus the bank note is to be deposited in. When the evaluation device is configured as a control and evaluation device, the latter can actuate a transport device of the bank-note processing apparatus in dependence on the classification result. Until the classification result is obtained, processing data are generated for the respective value document, said data being hereinafter understood to be a portion or all of the measuring data and/or data established therefrom, for example value-document features or, in the case of bank notes, bank-note features.
The evaluation methods and the establishment of the classification result must be adapted to the type of bank notes to be processed and also to the requirements of the operators of bank-note processing apparatuses. For this purpose, the evaluation device, preferably at least an evaluation program running therein, is parameterizable, i.e. there are classification parameters present whose values can be pre-specified and which are employed upon evaluation and classification or establishment of the classification result; said adapting of the classification parameter values, also designated as adapting of the classification parameters, will hereinafter be designated as adaptation. To establish appropriate classification parameters, the measuring data of corresponding, suitably pre-specified bank notes are frequently employed for adapting the classification parameters. More precisely, in a first step, upon a measuring-data acquisition for the pre-specified bank notes with the bank-note processing apparatus, corresponding measuring data are captured and lastingly stored. Said measuring data are then, in a second step, utilized for establishing the classification parameter values.
When such adapting is carried out, it can happen that certain bank notes cannot be classified as well as would be desirable. Particularly also in normal operation of the apparatus, it can happen that the classification of certain bank notes causes difficulties. In both cases it may be desirable to obtain processing data, for example measuring data, for certain bank notes which are difficult to classify with certainty.
Due to the often very great processing speeds of modern value-document processing apparatuses and/or the high resolving power of optical sensors employed therein, processing gives rise to a great stream of processing data, in particular when the latter comprise measuring data. It is hence not readily possible to store said data for later examinations for a longer time, in particular lastingly, i.e. beyond the end of the transporting of value documents. In particular, processing data of value documents with certain pre-specified properties cannot readily be stored for later employment.